CHAPTER 1: THE GLAD TIDINGS.
The Promised One of all the peoples of the world hath appeared.
All peoples and communities have been expecting a Revelation, and He, Baha'u'llah, is the foremost teacher and educator of all mankind.--'ABDU'L-BAHA.
The Greatest Event in History If we study the story of the "ascent of man" as recorded in the pages of history, it becomes evident that the leading factor in human progress is the advent, from time to time, of men who pass beyond the accepted ideas of their day and become the discoverers and revealers of truths hitherto unknown among mankind.

The inventor, the pioneer, the genius, the Prophet--these are the men on whom the transformation of world primarily depends.

As Carlyle says:-- The plain truth, very plain, we think is, that ...

_one_ man that has a higher Wisdom, a hitherto unknown spiritual Truth in him, is stronger, not than ten men that have it not, or than ten thousand, but than _all_ men that have it not; and stands among them with a quite ethereal, angelic power, as with a sword out of Heaven's own armory, sky-tempered, which no buckler, and no tower of brass, will finally withstand.
-- Signs of the Times In the history of science, of art, of music, we see abundant illustrations of this truth, but in no domain is the supreme importance of the great man and his message more clearly evident than in that of religion.

All down the ages, whenever the spiritual life of men has become degenerate and their morals corrupt, that most wonderful and mysterious of men, the Prophet, makes His appearance.